October 16, 2004

JUNK BONDS:

Barry Bonds was using an "undetectable" performance-enhancing drug during the 2003 baseball season, his weight trainer claimed in a conversation that was secretly recorded last year and provided to The Chronicle.

Trainer Greg Anderson, 38, who is Bonds' longtime friend and a defendant in the BALCO steroids conspiracy case, also said on the recording that he expected to receive advance warning before the San Francisco Giants superstar had to submit to a drug test under what was then baseball's new steroids- testing program.

The recording is the most direct evidence yet that Bonds used performance- enhancing drugs during his drive to break the storied record for career home runs. Major League Baseball banned the use of steroids beginning with the 2003 season. It has long been illegal to use them without a doctor's prescription.

"The whole thing is, everything that I've been doing at this point, it's all undetectable," Anderson said on the recording of the drug he was providing Bonds. "See the stuff I have, we created it, and you can't buy it anywhere else, can't get it anywhere else, but you can take it the day of (the test), pee, and it comes up perfect."

There was another reason the trainer was confident that Bonds' drug use would escape detection: Anderson said he would be tipped off a week or two before Bonds was subjected to steroid testing.

Gee, you mean he didn't just mature into a 24 inch necksize?
Posted by Orrin Judd at October 16, 2004 6:01 PM

Comments

I am going to need more than the word of someone who would say anything to avoid spending the rest of his life in the hoosegow before I convict the guy who will break Aaron's HR record.

In most any other sport Bonds would be suspended based on what we already know. In baseball, he could flunk several tests without being punished. Shame on Bud Selig, Don Fehr, and all of the baseball decision-makers. Shame.

One of the reasons the baseballs were flying out is that they were more tightly wound. When Haiti went up in flames, the baseball manufacturers moved their operations to Honduras. The baseballs were made tighter and better by the workers. It took organized baseball about 3 years to recognize this and then instructions were sent to make a looser, less tightly wound baseball more like it was in previous years.

Bonds got better with age. So did Clemens. So did Nolan Ryan. It could easily just be a function of players recognizing that they could make ridiculous amounts of money as long as they could suit up, so they play longer. The evidence all points to guys lengthening their careers. How many over 35s are there in the majors today vs. 20 years ago? Just look at each team and you'll get my point.

At this time, there is as much evidence Bonds has taken steroids as there is that Roger Maris took steroids or that George and Condi are having an affair.

Take the tremendous athlete Bonds was when he won his first MVP, now add four pounds of muscle a year -- easily achievable with consistent weight training and his megalomaniac power diet: the result is the Bonds of today.

This also doesn't mean he didn't do steroids, but, again, he certainly did not need steroids to achieve his build over a decade of diligent training.

The only evidence at hand is a poor recording of murky origin that is ostensibly Bonds' friend saying Bonds used "the clear," an until-recently undetectable steroid. Bonds was tested a few weeks ago. The results will be interesting, but, if negative, still not proof of innocence. In fact, there can never be proof of innocence of steroid use going back indefinitely, so Bonds is screwed if he is, and has always been, clean.